Taxes
Debate between Bradley Thomas and David Pinto-Duschinsky(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)
Earlier this month, the House witnessed the Government lose control of swathes of their own party. They have had just more than a year in office, and yet the cracks could not be clearer. In the last year, the country has had to endure U-turns, tax increases and a stagnant economy, and yet the Chancellor and the Prime Minister have been pushed by their disapproving Back Benchers into the inevitable: they will have to break their fiscal rules and manifesto commitments.
The OBR has warned of an up to £12 billion cost from the watered-down welfare reforms. Labour promised to stop the chaos and support business through a stable policy environment. That was in its manifesto, yet employer national insurance contributions increased in April—another pledge disregarded. We have seen the national insurance exemption for Indian workers transferring to the UK, which the Indian Government said was a competitive advantage for them. The Leader of the Opposition opposed such a deal as Business and Trade Secretary, yet the Government continue to sell out British workers. Whose side are this Government on? Deals and decisions like that explain why 73% of voters believe that the Government do not have things under control.
David Pinto-Duschinsky (Hendon) (Lab)
This is the Government who got trade deals that the Conservative party failed to do, and saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. Are you saying that you would not have signed those deals? Are you saying—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Roger Gale)
Order. I am not saying anything. Please address the Chair.
Business Confidence
Debate between Bradley Thomas and David Pinto-Duschinsky(9 months, 1 week ago)
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Bradley Thomas
In response, did the hon. Member not recognise the conditions that the Government inherited on their election in July? It has already been pointed out in this Chamber this afternoon that the Government have been rehashing billions of pounds’ worth of investment that the previous Government secured and are now passing it off as their own.
Returning to the points that I wish to make, the new Government have claimed that their election has positively impacted business confidence, but the Institute of Directors’ economic confidence index, which measures business leader optimism about the prospects for the UK economy, continued to fall in September to minus 38, having been minus 12 in August. According to the Office for National Statistics, 55% of respondents to a voluntary business survey about challenges facing the economy felt that their businesses’ performance would stay the same or decrease over the next year. The CBI’s industrial trends survey for September shows that more manufacturers think that output will fall over the next three months than think it will rise. Potentially most critically of all, GfK’s consumer confidence index fell to minus 20 in September, suggesting that consumers lack confidence in the vitality of our economy. In large part, that is due to concerns about tax rises—concerns shared by many businesses.
Instead of making the UK a hostile destination for investment, the Government should work to ensure that it is the most attractive destination possible for investment. To become an attractive destination for inward investment, we need to look urgently at the factors that will determine investment decisions. The tax burden, which rose following the global pandemic and the unprecedented level of support provided by the previous Government, is damaging business confidence through fear that there will be higher taxes after the Budget at the end of this month. We need to focus on incentives for businesses investing in large-scale capital projects, access to skills, a long-term industrial plan for the UK economy that will once again reward investment, and a concerted effort on skills development that will lead to a long-term uplift in industrial resilience. That is critical in a world in which our adversaries seek to gain advantage over us and blunt our economic edge.
We have a great opportunity to reduce our dependence on foreign imports and focus on the long term. That is particularly crucial to my constituency. I would like the Government to focus on small businesses and foster a greater sense of individual entrepreneurship at a grassroots level, which would be a massive benefit to constituencies across the country, town centres such as Bromsgrove’s, and rural businesses.